ABSTRACT
The vast majority of social work, social welfare and community development graduates have been urbanites, many of whom are poorly equipped to live and work in rural areas by virtue of their socialisation, personal values, professional ideologies, or preferred lifestyles. Urban welfare was, indeed, poorly adapted to the rural environment. The origins and development of Australia’s welfare system have been well documented. The foundations were laid down in England and other European countries between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries when welfare took shape as an urban response to predominantly urban problems. In the 1940s, Commonwealth welfare programs proliferated as successive Labour governments pursued their vision of a more caring and humane society. Rural welfare has only recently been introduced into Australian schools of social work and social welfare, although mostly in a minor way as an elective specialisation or through limited field education experiences. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
